


The First

by verysharpteeth



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 23:49:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2751695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verysharpteeth/pseuds/verysharpteeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raleigh and Mako tie up loose ends at the Shatterdome after the "end of the world".</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



The first time he kissed her was on the abandoned catwalk overlooking the bay where Gipsy Danger had been kept several weeks after the rift was closed. Everyone had been packing and clearing out the Shatterdome. Even with time to adjust and grieve it was still a difficult process for Mako as she had wanted to go through Stacker’s things personally. Raleigh stayed with her every moment that she’d allowed him. There were moments she cried and allowed him to stay and comfort her, quietly letting her tears soak into his shirt and leaning into his strength, safe in the knowledge that he never seemed uncomfortable with her outbursts nor did he bring them up unless she wanted to. There were moments when she just wanted to be alone and Raleigh seemed to just know and quietly melted away before she could even tell him that’s what she wanted, disappearing to allow her to resolve her feelings for herself. Three weeks later and the pain was still raw and fresh. Sometimes just sitting with Raleigh was soothing. She’d had Stacker to support her when she lost her parents, Stacker who she owed so much and who had descended from the sky like the heroes from legend. She had Raleigh now, whose strength was quiet and self contained and who spent so much time trying to read her, trying to figure out what she needed almost before she knew. Mako realized that he’d had no one when Yancy died. She marveled that he wasn’t a burned out shell. That he was one of the warmest people she’d ever known. She found him that particular day sitting in Gipsy’s hangar. 

“Hiding again?”

“It’s not hiding when you find me right away every time,” he had said, his smile making it the whole way to his eyes. Mako had sat down next to him, looking out at the abandoned hangar.

“She was all I really had left connected to Yancy,” he said, picking at the wire grating, “it hurt more than I thought it would.”

Mako understood and had leaned against him.

“So what do we do now?” he’d asked.

“Keep going. for them,” Mako had said, “make this world better like they fought for?.”

Mako studied Raleigh’s face as it softened and he looked at her with a smile he reserved only for her. 

“You mind if I tag along with you doing that?”

It occurred to Mako she’d never really considered him not being there. She’d almost lost him once and the idea of life without him around her felt sadly lonely. 

“If you can keep up,” she’d said with a smile, gratified by the grin she’d gotten from him considering how serious he could be. It was even more pleasing when he’d leaned forward and kissed her quickly on the mouth before standing up and pulling her to her feet as well.

“It’s a plan then,” he’d said. Mako could get used to a plan like that

The first time she kissed him was after watching him sitting and talking with Herc about what Mako could only assume was Chuck. There was never any question that even though Chuck could be unpleasant, Mako felt the cut of his death as well. She had always loved Herc like a benevolent uncle and while she didn’t agree with it, she understood Chuck’s hostility toward nearly everything. Seeing Herc’s pain over his son’s loss broke her heart. He continued to put on a brave face every time she was around, probably in deference to her own grief, but something about Raleigh’s presence caused him to open up in a way that perhaps would allow him to begin to heal, or at least let him feel he wasn’t so alone. Mako watched them talking, watched Herc try to reel in his feelings, watched Raleigh rest a hand on Herc’s shoulder because he knew. Raleigh had had a drift partner ripped away from him too. After they finished talking, Raleigh had found Mako. 

“I feel terrible for him,” he’d said, “Yancy and I got along...I miss him but I don’t regret our relationship. With Herc and Chuck…”

Raleigh had looked so at a loss as he trailed off that Mako had simply leaned up and kissed him, softly at first, but then a little more insistently, as if trying to convince him she saw his kindness and compassion and those were the parts of him she loved the most. It was a kiss that recognized he didn’t like seeing people in pain and Mako deeply appreciated that. 

“What was that for,” he’d asked, looking a bit stunned, gently tugging on the blue tip on one side of her hair. 

“You’re a good man, Raleigh Becket. You have a big heart.”

Raleigh had smiled, almost shyly. 

“I’m glad I found you,” she’d said.

“You found me?” he’d said with a raised eyebrow before shaking his head, “well, I guess that’s probably right. But at least give me some credit for being persistent about you.”

“I give you every bit of credit,” she’d said, linking her arm with his as they walked down the hallway, “every bit.”

The first time Raleigh and Mako kissed each other was while walking through the empty Shatterdome. It was like an abandoned warehouse, eerie and quiet, ghosts of lost friends and family seemingly waiting tentatively for the moment they could take over the place without impunity. 

Raleigh watched Mako trail her fingers down the walls as they walked through the corridors. This was the last place she’d been with Stacker, the place where she’d finally been able to fulfill her promise to her family. She might not have any real love for the stark steel walls, but it was still a momentous part of her life. Raleigh felt it was the real turning point for his because this was where he’d found Mako, the missing piece of his life he’d been walking around without ever since Yancy’s death. It was difficult to admit to yourself that you were happy about an apocalypse, but Raleigh was grateful that if the world had actually come to an end, he’d have had Mako there with him as it did. For someone who had lost much of his will to enjoy life and had just existed for so long, he was becoming used to being content and interested in life again almost purely from her influence. She was a bottomless well of fascination to him and part of him was more than ready to embark on anything the next stage of his life could throw at him, as long as she was a part of it.

“I’m not sad to go,” she’d said, stopping to look at the door of her bunk room, the one across the hall from his where she had first really seen and understood the man next to her, “but I’m sad to leave my friends. The ones not here any more.”

“I understand that,” Raleigh had said, putting an arm around her. 

“I’m not sad to leave with my best friend,” Mako said.

“Is that what I am,” Raleigh had said with a smile. 

“Is that what you want to be, Raleigh Becket?”

“I’ll be whatever you want. Just let me be it with you.”

Mako beamed at him, catching his face between her hands and reaching on her toes to kiss Raleigh as he leaned toward her.

“We have plenty of time for me to be creative in what I want from you,” she’d said mischievously as they pulled away from each other slightly. 

“Good,” Raleigh said as they headed toward the exit, “that sounds good.”


End file.
